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Using a Bluetooth headset with the IBM T42P

It turns out that getting my new Bluetooth headset working correctly with my IBM T42P notebook computer was more complicated than expected. The factory-shipped Bluetooth configuration is unusable with some devices, including my headset. Here’s the story, including how to fix it:

When I first set up the wireless headset last week, I paired it with my Nokia 6820 cell phone, which already has a working Bluetooth stack and handsfree device profile for using a headset. I was also able to successfully initialize device pairing with the notebook computer and the cell phone at the same time, which was one of the main selling features of the Plantronics 510. The headset showed up in the Bluetooth devices list, as expected, and I didn’t get around to trying to use it until today.

The headset has been working great for handsfree phone use, so today I was looking forward to trying it with some voice applications on the notebook computer.

It turns out that while the Bluetooth headset successfully paired with the T42’s built-in Bluetooth (IBM Integrated Bluetooth III), none of the headset device interfaces were recognized and initialized by the system (WinXP SP2 Pro). This means that in the Control Panel, the audio devices corresponding to the headset microphone and earpiece didn’t show up, so they were unselectable for use in applications.

From investigating this, it looks like:

  1. IBM supplies a Bluetooth stack (Widcomm) specific to their hardware, and Microsoft also provides a Bluetooth stack with WinXP SP2.
  2. If both are running, the results are unpredictable. In my case, the Nokia 6820 was able to connect without problems with both stacks in place, but the Plantronics 510 paired without loading the interfaces, making it useless.
  3. Under most conditions, when WinXP detects new Bluetooth hardware, it will automatically load the Microsoftc Bluetooth stack.
  4. If the Microsoft Bluetooth stack isn’t loaded, 3rd party Bluetooth stacks can still be installed and provide identical or enhanced functionality.

Here’s a solution that worked for me (although I still don’t entirely understand the problem interaction yet):

  1. Remove all instances of Bluetooth stacks in the Device Manager.
  2. Before rebooting the system, prevent the Microsoft Bluetooth stack from loading. Here are the instructions from Microsoft’s knowledge base KB889814:

    1. Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then click OK.
    2. Click the Hardware tab.
    3. Click Device Manager.
    4. Expand Bluetooth Radios.
    5. Right-click each device listed under Bluetooth Radios, click Uninstall, and then click OK.
    6. Close Device Manager, and then click OK.
    7. In Windows Explorer, open the C:\Windows\Inf folder.
    8. Rename the Bth.inf file to Bth.inf.old.
    9. Rename the Bth.pnf file to Bth.pnf.old.
    10. Restart Windows XP SP2.

  3. Now reboot the system. Windows XP will detect the Bluetooth hardware and begin automatically installing the drivers. This time, the IBM Bluetooth software will be installed, but without loading the Microsoft Bluetooth software.
  4. At this point, the Control Panel item for Bluetooth Configuration will actually work, and there will be many tabs that weren’t there before. The Bluetooth Devices applet appears to do nothing, I think it may be left over from the Microsoft stack.

There are several lengthy discussions on Bluetooth and IBM T series notebook computers over at the thinkpads.com forum. This one is probably the most relevant, but be sure to read to the end, since the first post on the thread is from March 2005, and all the software involved has been updated since then.

After disabling the Microsoft Bluetooth stack and rebooting, I needed to reinitialize the device pairing to connect the cell phone and the headset, but since then everything seems to be working OK.

This is remarkably “user-unfriendly” and about as far from “plug and play” as I can imagine.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 16th, 2006 at 8:12 pm and is filed under sysadmin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

13 Responses to “Using a Bluetooth headset with the IBM T42P”

  1. eric Says:
    February 8th, 2006 at 6:11 pm

    Any hack to make the HP 6515 pocket PC and Microsoft Voice command work via bluetooth headset

  2. hjl Says:
    February 8th, 2006 at 8:13 pm

    Sorry, I don’t have a current iPaq, so no help there. The 6515 is current enough to come with Bluetooth support built in, which should help.

    I haven’t used Microsoft Voice, either. I have had okay results using the Plantronics Bluetooth headset with the T42P to run voice recognition software (Dragon Naturally Speaking 8) although this did require retraining the system for use with the different microphone.

  3. Michael Says:
    April 13th, 2006 at 11:00 am

    I paired HP 6315 with my T42 it was long and painfull process and now I will do it again since my M$ stack is gone B) btw I paired my 510A but no sound yet, just beeps any idea?

  4. Michael Says:
    April 13th, 2006 at 11:04 am

    Just got audio on my 590 (had to press phone button) Thanks a lot for your Know-how

  5. rich Says:
    April 27th, 2006 at 7:31 am

    thanks, this posting (and the thread on thinkpads.com) got me on the right path to get my plantronics 640 headset working on my thinkpad t41 with windows xp pro. it was a very convoluted and un-user friendly process, but now it works!

  6. Sean Says:
    July 20th, 2006 at 4:44 pm

    Thanks for the article, I would have had a hella time trying to figure this out. Got my Plantronics 940, like Rich, working on my t42p and v551 at the same time, what a sweet deal.

  7. Will Says:
    August 28th, 2006 at 4:46 pm

    Thanks for posting this, but even after following your instructions and reading the thread on thinkpads.com I can’t get my new LG HBM-300 or my Moto phone to pair with my T42p. Both pair with the MS stack, but neither are recognized when using the IBM stack after following the instructions. Anybody have any suggestions?

  8. hjl Says:
    August 28th, 2006 at 7:18 pm

    You might want to double check that you’ve gotten the Microsoft Bluetooth stack completely removed. If you install the Widcomm stack without rebooting after removing the old stack, it may behave the way you described. It took me a few tries to get everything working.

  9. Yoav Says:
    September 2nd, 2006 at 9:39 am

    These instructions were very helpful, but I needed a few extra steps. After I rebooted, Windows thought the Bluetooth radio was a USB device and did not find any drivers. I downloaded IBM’s Widcomm driver (bthwxp1o.exe) from Access IBM, unzipped and used the unzipped files for the Control Panel’s Add Hardware wizard. Finally, I ran setup.exe from the unzipped directory, and that’s when Bluetooth Configuration showed up in the Control Panel. Everything works very nicely now.

  10. Jim Says:
    October 2nd, 2006 at 8:29 am

    Thanks for your posting; it’s important in step 10 to shut down & restart the Thinkpad; otherwise the IBM drivers will install but won’t create the ‘my bluetooth places’ shortcut and devices won’t connect. Thanks to your posting I use the T42 and a bluetooth headset for Skype calls.

  11. Jack Says:
    December 21st, 2006 at 4:32 pm

    I have a ThinkPad T41p with Windows XP SP1. I wanted to have it work with Plantronics Headset Voyager 510.

    I downloaded bthwxp1o.exe IBM Integrated Bluetooth II from Lenovo for my machine and after the obvious install from BTW.msi failed, I looked on the web for discussions like this.

    I could not get the above hjl’s hack to work on my machine, though I tried all sorts of variations. I finally succeeded by using the below instructions 1-23 from Lenovo exactly, after I restored the BTW.INF and BTW.PNF files.

    That’s what worked for me. I don’t remember such a miserable install process since the old IRQ conflict days.

    ============================
    II. Installation instructions
    Notes:

    * If any previous or current Integrated Bluetooth II Software is already installed on your ThinkPad, uninstall the software in Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel before installation.
    * Do not turn on the Bluetooth power before you complete the Bluetooth software installation.
    * During the installation, do not touch the keyboard, the TrackPoint, or the mouse.
    * ThinkPad Software Installer provides an install/uninstall wizard for this package. Before using the ThinkPad Software Installer, you must uninstall the previous or current software using Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel or using the ThinkPad Software Installer.
    * In the Windows XP preload environment, the Microsoft Bluetooth software is installed. You can install and use Integrated Bluetooth II Software, but you can use only one of them at a time.

    1. Start Windows, and for Windows 2000/XP logon with administrative privileges.
    2. Extract this package to the hard drive.
    3. Click Start, then click Run. In the Open field, type C:\DRIVERS\WIN\BDCACT\SETUP.EXE and click OK to install the Bluetooth software. If you extracted the files to a different location, specify that location instead.
    4. In Welcome to the InstallShield Wizard for Integrated Bluetooth II Software window, Click Next.
    5. In the License Agreement window, read the License Agreement carefully, if agreed select I accept the term in the license agreement then click Next.
    6. In the Destination Folder window, just click Next. (If you need to change the destination, click Change, select or enter the destination folder you like, then Click OK.)
    7. In the Ready to Install the Program window, click Install.
    8. When Driver Signature Notice window appears, click OK.
    9. When InstallShield Wizard Completed window appears, click Finish.
    10. If you asked to restart the system, click Yes to restart the computer.
    11. After restarting the computer, turns on the Bluetooth LED and loads the Integrated Bluetooth device driver.
    Note:
    On Windows XP with Microsoft Standard Bluetooth software installed, you must perform the following steps in order to complete the installation of the Integrated Bluetooth II software.

    12. Turn the Bluetooth power on.
    13. Click Start, select Control Panel.
    14. Click Performance and Maintenance, then click System.
    15. Click the Hardware tab, then click Device Manager.
    16. Double-click Bluetooth Radios.
    17. Double-click Integrated Bluetooth II.
    18. Click the Driver tab, then click the Update Driver… button.
    19. Select Install from a list or specific location then click Next.
    20. Select Don’t search. I will choose the driver to install, then click Next.
    21. Select the driver without the Digital Signed icon, and click Next.
    Note: If you do not see the driver that is not digitally signed, click “Have disk”, then enter “C:\Drivers\WIN\BDCAT” in the “Copy manufacturer’s files from:” box, click OK, then select Next.
    22. When a pop-up window appears, click the Continue Anyway button.
    23. Click Finish to close window.

    http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-50245

  12. Rob S. Says:
    December 31st, 2006 at 9:14 am

    You guys are Great! Got my Plantronics 510 working also, thx to you. 1 Quick question: Can I have simultaneous output from the hardware speaker port on my T40? Also Turning off the Plantronics, how do I restore the audio signal to the speaker port?

  13. Chaz Antonelli Says:
    January 30th, 2008 at 9:19 am

    I’m having a similar problem getting my Samsung WEP200 Headset to work with my ThinkPad T41.

    The T41 has IBM Integrated Bluetooth II, not III.

    Any suggestions? I tried to do what you suggested and buggered up my Bluetooth devices and had to back out of the change.

    Any advice is truly appreciated!

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